Age of Wonders 4

[Lord of Riva]

We should organize a Codex game

im down

Don't let it be a 1v1, come on guys there need to be some people interested.

 

[Fedora Master]

Turns out the game will use the first GPU it recognizes, which in some cases is the onboard one. Turning that off solves the performance issues.

 

[Fedora Master]

After some easy games I have to say the game isn't bad, it just isn't very close to the old Age of Wonders I suppose.
The whole Pantheon stuff and race customization makes it feel a bit like Stellaris. Less of a directed narrative and more of a "make your own story" feel.
I'm okay with the mechanics so far. The UI always feels like things take just one click too many however.

 

[Lord of Riva]

After some easy games I have to say the game isn't bad, it just isn't very close to the old Age of Wonders I suppose.
The whole Pantheon stuff and race customization makes it feel a bit like Stellaris. Less of a directed narrative and more of a "make your own story" feel.
I'm okay with the mechanics so far. The UI always feels like things take just one click too many however.

It's definitely different and I understand people not liking it because of that. It's the age old "it's not X anymore debate", but the game in itself i decent. One of my issues is that it becomes samey in the end game.

 

[Axioms]

After some easy games I have to say the game isn't bad, it just isn't very close to the old Age of Wonders I suppose.
The whole Pantheon stuff and race customization makes it feel a bit like Stellaris. Less of a directed narrative and more of a "make your own story" feel.
I'm okay with the mechanics so far. The UI always feels like things take just one click too many however.

Aside from a hand crafted narrative what would make it closer to the old games? Discounting a full on AoW1 style remaster.

 

[Lacrymas]

It's not bad when a game isn't like its prequel, it's only bad when the changes actively make it worse. From what I've played, it seems like everything is faster compared to previous entries. Being able to hoard insane amounts of production by spamming quarries and different queues for units and buildings are the main culprit. I don't know how I feel about this yet. The different queues don't make you feel like you are wasting time creating lower tier units, which is good. I don't get the point of sectors, however, it seems like it's another button to push without adding anything of gameplay note.

 

[Blutwurstritter]

After some easy games I have to say the game isn't bad, it just isn't very close to the old Age of Wonders I suppose.
The whole Pantheon stuff and race customization makes it feel a bit like Stellaris. Less of a directed narrative and more of a "make your own story" feel.
I'm okay with the mechanics so far. The UI always feels like things take just one click too many however.

Aside from a hand crafted narrative what would make it closer to the old games? Discounting a full on AoW1 style remaster.

The economy/town development part takes much more space in AoW4 compared to AoW 1-3, and is closer to Planetfall than the other titles. The lack of races which all AoW games had so far is also a clear distinction. Diplomacy is also quite different to the older games. I'd say there is very little in common with the first three games, and having knowledge of them doesn't do much for AoW4. Many of the mechanics in AoW4 are new to me, since I dropped Planetfall very quickly and do not play 4X games in general.
I like the game so far, but I would prefer fewer options/decisions with larger impact over the continuous stream of management tasks of minor impact that the game throws at you. You could focus more on exploring and your armies in the old games. Now I'm interrupted all the time with some menial management task that doesn't feel important/interesting. The older town systems were a bit simplistic with room for improvement but I don't know yet if I like the direction that they took.

 

[Lord of Riva]

It's not bad when a game isn't like its prequel, it's only bad when the changes actively make it worse. From what I've played, it seems like everything is faster compared to previous entries. Being able to hoard insane amounts of production by spamming quarries and different queues for units and buildings are the main culprit. I don't know how I feel about this yet. The different queues don't make you feel like you are wasting time creating lower tier units, which is good. I don't get the point of sectors, however, it seems like it's another button to push without adding anything of gameplay note.

The sector system can be used to more freely place cities. This can be used in tandem with specific empire upgrades (Imperialist and a Materium upgrade) and also to interact with your enemies, by stealing their ressources and Ancient wonders. Here the work camps also come into mind.

Fedora Master Lacrymas Blutwurstritter Isn't any of you interested in a PVP game?

 

[Lacrymas]

Fedora Master Lacrymas Blutwurstritter Isn't any of you interested in a PVP game?

I am technically up for it, but I'm using the "demo" version ;d

 

[Fedora Master]

You know, they have all this furry shit but NO FUCKING DOG RACE?

 

[Blutwurstritter]

It's not bad when a game isn't like its prequel, it's only bad when the changes actively make it worse. From what I've played, it seems like everything is faster compared to previous entries. Being able to hoard insane amounts of production by spamming quarries and different queues for units and buildings are the main culprit. I don't know how I feel about this yet. The different queues don't make you feel like you are wasting time creating lower tier units, which is good. I don't get the point of sectors, however, it seems like it's another button to push without adding anything of gameplay note.

The sector system can be used to more freely place cities. This can be used in tandem with specific empire upgrades (Imperialist and a Materium upgrade) and also to interact with your enemies, by stealing their ressources and Ancient wonders. Here the work camps also come into mind.

Fedora Master Lacrymas Blutwurstritter Isn't any of you interested in a PVP game?

I am not interested in multiplayer.

Am I blind or is there no pause button in combat replays? And is it possible to play the missions with simultaneous turns or is the option gone from the game? Sometimes I wish manuals were still a thing ...

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Simultaneous turns is an option that I spotted somewhere, but it wasn't active by default so I decided to play the game as it comes and then experiment with that later.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Simultaneous turns is an option that I spotted somewhere, but it wasn't active by default so I decided to play the game as it comes and then experiment with that later.

Yeah, it's still there. There's a thing that is pretty prominent that gives you the option of traditional turns or simultaneous turns.

 

[Lacrymas]

Simultaneous turns always sound good on paper, but in practice it forces you to rush with movement when you are near an enemy so you can get more favourable positioning.

 

[Lord of Riva]

Simultaneous turns always sound good on paper, but in practice it forces you to rush with movement when you are near an enemy so you can get more favourable positioning.

It speeds up the game but the difference is set off by the behavior you describe. Battles should not be decided by wrong positioning armies and the enemy react a split second faster to engage a single stack. But that has been a thing in the older games as well.

 

[Lacrymas]

More impressions - it seems like the game throws various units at you and indirectly forces you to create "rainbow" armies of whatever. I honestly don't know what the point of cultures in this context is. I'm on turn 19 and like 70% of my armies aren't composed of my culture anymore. It's much easier and faster to explore the map and to summon creatures than it is to train units from cities. It also spares you the logistics of getting the units to the front lines. There's also the balance issues. It was obvious from the very announcement of this game that there are going to be balance issues, but some tomes are so much better than the others. Take Tome of Roots for example. That spell that summons 5 vines in a huge area is freakishly overpowered and probably the best spell in the entire game. I haven't found a freakishly op unit yet, but I'm sure I'll do sooner rather than later. The AI is strangely aggressive in combat, to its detriment. It rushes at you, which allows you to set up great positioning and get the first hits in.

The leveling up quickly starts to suffer from Pillars of Eternity's problem of "what is the least shit choice". There are some no-brainer picks that you want on every hero imaginable, but then you get to the other ones. I'm still not particularly stoked about this focus on heroes. It's not because they are particularly powerful or anything, they actually aren't, it's just that an army feels so limited without a hero, they basically can't do anything on their own. They can't siege, explore "ancient wonders" (don't get me started on those), they lack certain buffs from level up traits, the heroes themselves bring certain utility if nothing else, etc. It also feels like the game is stingy with giving you heroes in the first place, especially in the context of them being so important.

All in all, the game is more "pop" (like the music genre) than previous entries. Flashy choices, noticeably faster gameplay, good graphics for the genre, skippable story segments, a lot of (somewhat unnecessary) buttons to press all the time. It kinda just makes me want to play AoW3 instead, but I'll keep going for now. But hey, the maps are pretty good for once.

P.S.
I still hate the anime race transformations (especially angels and demons).

Oh, there's also a non-aesthetic reason I hate the race transformations - it makes all your units look the same and it's hard to differentiate them in combat. You start relying more on their unit type symbols above them, but then you have 2 different support units in your army and the confusion begins anew.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Keep in mind that I may still have a partial view of the thing, but my main problem with transformations after a second game where I went for complete different faction and magic is... Am I missing something or there's no trade-off even worth considering and most of them are just a straight upgrade?
I'd like to have at least a potential reason to not do them and "preserve the purity" of my race(s) of choice.

No idea what's supposed to make them "anime", anyway.

 

[Lacrymas]

No idea what's supposed to make them "anime", anyway.

Overly flashy with glowing parts everywhere. The idea of transforming into an angel or demon is extremely anime in the first place. It's also what a 13-year-old would find cool.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

That’s literally a made-up correlation, but ok.
Just because you instinctively associate “anime” with “lame” it doesn’t mean everything lame is also anime.

 

[Blutwurstritter]

The transformations are largely buffs. Some decrease specific elemental resistances but this is offset by larger gains in other areas. But overall, I find the minor transformations to be more important. They allow you to stack huge amounts of boni with basically no drawback.

Chargers/cavalry seems to be underwhelming. Having only a single attack is a big disadvantage when there are many enchantments that add a constant damage buff. So far I had the best damage output with ranged units after stacking enchantments and transformations on them. There seem to be more and better spells to improve ranged attacks.

 

[Demo.Graph]

I've tried it for half an hour. GOG version. I get random interface crashes.
First pic is after the barbarian spawner battle, second is after the goody pickup. Game keeps running but interface gets covered by "fog" and doesn't respond to commands. ESC menu is the only thing that works.

Spoiler

I've tried reloading and changing graphics settings, but it happens anyway. Probably some interface pop-up scripting error.

Also, lol at patch log.

Spoiler

Steam
Increased Save File limit per Session to 50

GoG
Fixed Potential Save Game issues with Foreign Characters in the PC Name
Fixed Achievements unlocking incorrectly

Epic
Fixed Save Games not being able to be deleted
Fixed Save Games unable to be made after approx 70 min of continuous play

Known Issues
Epic Games Version crash occurring on Launch/during the initial Loading Screen
Non-Functional Safe Area Ratio Slider
AI Behaviour causing “Opponents are Moving” hang
Custom Titles reset in the finalize screen when editing a Custom Faction
Province with Underground Water cannot construct Special Province Improvements

It's as if they haven't even tried to run their own product.

 

[Lacrymas]

This is a thing which also happens -

Yaka has 2 other armies in range, but they don't reinforce for some reason.

 

[Fedora Master]

Vine Prison is awesome. I thought it was a normal root spell, no, it creates a bunch of trash vines that fuck with the enemy AI by wasting their turns.

e:

 

[Lacrymas]

Vine Prison is awesome. I thought it was a normal root spell, no, it creates a bunch of trash vines that fuck with the enemy AI by wasting their turns.

Oh, it does much more than that. I'm not calling it the best spell in the game for no reason. It's especially good against ranged units in specific. Since it has a chance to immobilize, it completely shuts down ranged units because they can't shoot or even cast spells while in melee range/in zones of control. You can beat armies twice your size by only using Vine Prison. It's *so* good in fact that I don't see a reason for Tome of Roots not to be your first or second tome pick.

 

[Suicidal]

Sounds like it will be nerfed soon